Winter Van Life Diary, Scotland UK

Winter Van Life Diary | Full Time UK Van Living

Winter Van Life Diary - Transcript

[00:00:00] Kez: Winter van life in Scotland, a little travel diary entry.

[00:00:02] Kez: Hello and welcome back for another episode of Trist and Kez. And we will be with you in just one minute.

[00:00:12 Kez: Right that's better nothing makes sense without a coffee. There you go, darling. Right now let's chat. We’ve got our coffees. Yeah, we're in the middle of some storms. I think they've been named.

[00:00:29] Trist: Yeah.

[00:00:30] Kez: I don't know, I think they name every storm now.

[00:00:31] Trist: One storm's gone, one's coming.

[00:00:33] Kez: It's windy and it's wet. Winter Van Life in Scotland, a little travel diary entry. We have just had the most epic road trip haven't we?

[00:00:42] Trist: Yeah it's been incredible isn't it?

[00:01:30] Kez: yeah the whole door froze locked. We snapped the door handle off trying to get in. Frank's water froze overnight. Doesn't help that we ran out of gas. Which uh is our heating. So yeah Scotland in bite-sized chunks for the winter. we're dipping in and out. So for this little chunk of Scotland, we mainly stuck to Glencoe. Didn't we?

[00:01:53] Trist: yeah, and we might have said in previous videos, but kind of around the A82. Because we kind of saw before we went, it got well snowy, didn't it. Hoping for snow when we went. But we realised we're not in a 4x4 all-purpose vehicle. Oh hey, Murphy.

Yeah if it all went a bit tits up. Being near the a82 it gets gritted quite regularly. So that was our plan.

[00:02:16] Kez: Actually, that was a little bit of advice from another van lifer that we met in Scotland. They said when it is snowy and it's icy if you stick around the A82. Don't venture too far from it because it is a main gritting route. So a lot of the car parks they'll pick up grit off their car tyres. So they then stay slightly less icy and treacherous. 

We did go to more than just Glencoe. It feels like we were kind of there for a couple of weeks. Doesn't it. But we did venture off, interestingly enough to Cuil Bay somewhere we found 3 years ago. We found this spot and haven't been able to find it since. It wasn't on park4night. But luckily Trist found it through search for sites and uh we had the whole place practically to ourselves. 

Cuil Bay -Beach Park Up

Met a really really lovely local who told us a story of how he and his wife ended up in Scotland. Which is one of the things I love about going to Scotland or going anywhere you know. Wales, Cornwall. Anywhere that you're unfamiliar with is chatting with the locals. Like some of their stories of origin of how they ended up in places is amazing. 

This guy in particular he' uh there's a beautiful house that has like a panoramic view of Cuil Bay. He was telling us how he rented it years ago for 50p. You know that's how much rent was back then. 

[00:03:33] Trist: I think it was £50 quid though, wasn’t it.

[00:03:35] Kez: It was something insane it was something insane and then they'd never left Scotland. We can see why. The drives. The amount of space. 

[00:03:45] Trist: Yeah. 

[00:03:46] Kez: Isn't it?

[00:03:47] Trist: Well I think approximately, oh fact check. About 5 to six million people live in Scotland. So that's probably why we find it so freeing and breathtaking. Because it's something mental like 55 or 57 million people live in England. So you can see the disparity and the denseness of people. So yeah and I think the majority of people live in the cities in Scotland. So once you start venturing out. 

[00:04:11] Kez: It's just Wilderness to yourself isn't it. 

[00:04:13] Trist: It's just incredible isn't it.

[00:04:16] Kez: It's funny we said we were definitely going to Europe. We will definitely go to Europe.

[00:04:20] Trist: Chase that winter sun.

[00:04:22] Kez: But then you go to Scotland and you go, we haven't even seen all of what's on this little island yet. We have so much still to explore.

[00:04:31] Trist: But we were pretty lucky with the weather. Although it was like biblically cold for us. For Southerners. Most of the time like the sun was out, wasn't it. And so once we were in the sun with all our layers on. It was just incredible. So you know we've got a little bit of winter sun. It's really the rain and wind that is our nemesis in Gertie.

[00:04:53] Kez: Yeah but hopefully by Tuesday all those problems will be fixed. She's going into the garage, the old girl. Which is a slightly funny one as well. Just going off. 

Oh I just spilt my coffee. 

[00:05:03] Trist: Oh no. 

What To Do When Your Van Goes Into The Garage

[00:05:05] Kez: That's an interesting one isn't it. When your van's got to go into the garage and you live in it. We haven't had to navigate this as yet. But obviously we've got a cat who lives in here with us.

[00:05:14] Trist: See his little tail here. 

[00:05:16] Kez: We've got Frank who lives in here with us and this is our home. Yeah, I don't know. What do you do when your car goes into the garage if you travel with animals? I mean we'll find out. 

[00:05:26] Trist: Just a very long walk with Frank isn't it? 

[00:05:29] Kez: Well one Gertie has had her little bit of TLC. We are thinking of a slightly different route this time and hitting up the Northumberland 250. Don't know if any of you have heard of it. Not as famous as the NC500. But we've heard good things.

[00:05:45] Trist: We have.

[00:05:46] Kez: And… It's only a little cut across to go to Dumfries and Galloway. And thanks to some of you lovely lot. We have some amazing recommendations of where to go we were going to. 

Oh hello, Murphy.

We were going to stop at Dumfries and Galloway, but we were trying to escape the freezing temperatures. In Scotland, you will be spoiled for choice where you can stay. 

Funny enough we were recently watching a YouTube video and people were saying how overrun Europe seems to be. Every single spot they went to with motorhomes and vans. I can promise you that doesn't happen in Scotland. We've been in May. We've been in September, we have now been in January. And there is space. We've never run out of park ups. The amount we have found are absolutely stunning. I think the simple thing is is just move on if a spot's too busy. There are so many to choose from you don't need to overcrowd an area do you. 

[00:06:42] Trist: Yeah it's not like being in England that's for sure or certainly Southern England. Where it's like you're praying on your one-stop, yeah because if that doesn't work out we don't know where we're staying.

Campervan/Motorhome Overnight Pub Parking

Also if you're a member of Brit Stops then you can stay for free. Obviously, it's your choice if you go and eat in the pub or have a drink. But we would highly recommend it because they've got a beautiful log burner. As we said lovely staff, a really lovely atmosphere and amazingly priced food yeah amazingly priced food.

[00:07:45] Trist: Mentally priced food. Well you saw it online, didn't you? Looked up the menus and whatnot. 

Oh hold up a sec, cat's just a poo.

[00:07:55] Kez: Oh nice. 

[00:07:56] Trist: We're on a very quick time limit. Before we all die, in here.

[00:07:59] Kez: If anyone travels with cats or thinking about doing it. Do, it's a dream, they're amazing to have on the road with you until they do a poo.

[00:08:08] Trist: Always have a litter.

[00:08:11] Kez: It smells worse than anything you could imagine. Up. He's he's he's being shy. This one's not being shy though. Where are you off to now. This is what happens when you try and film I just I mean, you say hello to one then the other one wants attention. This is this is not how this is meant to go guys.

[00:08:51] Trist: Hey fellas we're in the middle of filming here.

[00:08:56] Kez: Never listens. Right now this one.

[00:09:01] Trist: You're not going to say hi say hi to the camera. Shall I move my coffee. 

[00:09:05] Kez: No, you stay in your bed.

[00:09:06] Trist: No no one wants to say hello to you okay.

[00:09:07] Kez: Let's wrap this up. Saw that you could get two courses for £10. That's just an offer they have on. The specials was incredible they were selling all sorts

[00:09:20] Trist: Bum in the camera B 

[00:09:24] Kez: Yes Metal Bridge Inn, should be a stop on your list.

[00:09:29] Trist: Here's the what3words. ///narrowest.audibly.coverage.

[00:09:30] Kez: Yeah little tip there. Heading in or out of Scotland, treat yourself. Also on Airbnb, we saw the rooms are only £30 a night. 

So it's a slightly haphazard YouTube video this week not that

[00:09:42] Trist: Definitely like and Subscribe for more of this though, hey. She's our PR so you know.

Van Life Plans - What Next

[00:09:50] Kez: But we wanted to bring you up to speed. We're currently kind of static while we sort for waiting for a few parts for Old Gertie. So we just wanted to keep you in the loop of what's going on. Bring you up to speed of where we've been in Scotland. Where we plan to go, Northumberland 250. 

But yeah any questions you have about Scotland? Any concerns you have about van living in Scotland? Any advice you want about going to Scotland in a van. Then, we’re your guys. Hit us up. But thank you for spending another few minutes of your week with us. We greatly appreciate you.

[00:10:27] Trist: Don't forget to check out our website www.tristandkez.com. For all the tips, tricks and van life hacks we post them up there. We also share the destinations that we go to. 

And until next time folks. Don't forget to like, subscribe and hit the bell notification so you get more updates on this enthralling information, we share with you. 

And until next time folks, bye for now.

More UK Blogs

• Public Showers in Scotland
• NC500 Campsites Guide
• Wild With Consent - Wild Camping Made Legal
  
• How To Find Free Overnight Motorhome Parking
• Jackery Explorer 500 Review

Top